Singiresu Rao, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospance Engineering, has been selected to receive the 2019 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) J.P. Den Hartog Award for his “life time contributions to research, teaching and practice in vibration engineering.”
“In the past, I always felt that ASME presented this award only to world-renowned researchers who also made outstanding contributions to the education and practice of vibration,” Rao said. “Learning that I was also recognized to be equal to them has been an exciting, thrilling, as well as a humbling feeling for me.”
The award recognizes Rao for his lasting contributions to the research, education and practice of vibration engineering, particularly for the development of novel active control techniques and uncertainty-based models for vibration of dynamical systems, as well as for the publication of books that have been widely adopted by over 100 universities and have influenced generations of engineers.
In addition to his research at the College, Rao’s books and contributions to the three-volume Encyclopedia of Vibration (coedited by Rao) are being used by more than 100 universities, which include Harvard, Stanford, MIT and CalTech, in the U.S. alone, indirectly bringing status to the University.
The ASME J.P. Den Hartog Award is one of the most prestigious honors in the field of vibration. It recognizes lifetime contributions to the teaching and practice of vibration engineering. The award was established in 1987 and operated as a division award until 2010 when it was elevated to a Society award. The award is given in odd-numbered years.
Vibration engineering has always been a cutting-edge and practical engineering field, evolving from the development and application of fundamental, basic and simple concepts to complex, more accurate models.
“The field has offered me opportunities to introduce new methodologies and ideas to solve practical vibration problems faced by not only the government organizations, such as NASA and Air Force, but also by corporations such as General Motors, Ford Motor Co, General Electric and International Paper Company,” Rao said. “It is gratifying to see that these ideas were recognized by the vibrations community as outstanding and of highest-level achievements.”
Rao’s main research interests are in multiobjective optimization, uncertainty models in engineering analysis, design and optimization, reliability-based design, finite element and meshfree methods, and optimization and reliability of renewable energy systems. He also introduced, for the first time in literature, uncertainty concepts such as probabilistic, fuzzy, interval and grey system theories to make the models and the resulting performance predictions more practical, realistic and accurate.
The J.P. Den Hartog Award will be presented to Rao during the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences in Anaheim, California, from August 18-21.
Rao earned his bachelor’s at Andhra University, his master’s from the Indian Institute of Technology, and doctorate from Case Western Reserve University.
